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Save someone else's son: No on Question 4

The Lowell Sun

Updated:
09/22/2016 09:46:45 AM EDT

Sept. 20 would have been my son's 36th birthday. Billy died 19 years ago, when his speeding car collided with a school bus on his way to school.

While walking around Pine Ridge Cemetery this week, I couldn't help but notice how many others buried there had been born in the 1980s. I wondered why. Accidents? Childhood diseases? Surely that would account for some. But I couldn't help but suspect that many were due to addiction issues.

Billy also struggled with addiction issues. He started using marijuana in middle school. By sophomore year, in his own words, he was addicted to it. We could see its effects. His sweet nature disappeared. His grades fell. His mood changed. He tried to stop, he said, and we thought he had. We learned, much later, that he was not only using, he was selling.

He was driving into Lowell to meet people who protected themselves with large guns, to buy marijuana to sell. His addiction was taking over his life. Whether or not it would have, we will never know.

They say legalizing recreational marijuana would keep the people with the big guns out of the drug-selling business. That smoking pot is really harmless. I wonder how many of those proponents have had to bury a child addicted to drugs? How many have struggled with a child losing their smile, their success in school, their sense of pride in themselves?

Do they really think placing parameters on this new law will prevent teens from growing and using it? Do we really want to encourage our kids to recreate by using drugs?

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